5 Personal
coach Shortly
after I started my own sightseeing-tour I ended up at a local pub and ordered a
beer at the bar. The
man next to me was glad with this new visitor and introduced himself as John, personal
coach for high society ladies. John was a funny, nice, 100% gay, womanised
person with a passion for clothes, shoes, fashion shops and looks. Therefore he
was harmless and the ideal company for the ladies he dressed and advised. John
offered me a lot of beers and talked with passion about his work. This mix made
it nice and funny to listen to his stories. He was living in El Paso and was on
his way to a client in Key West. I asked
him to tell me a little about El Paso because my cycling trip would also pass
that town. We roughly calculated the date I would arrive at El Paso and he told
me he probably would be in El Paso at that time. He asked me to write down his
number and to call him when I arrived. I would be more than welcome at his house
during my stay at El Paso. “Do
not get me wrong darling” he told me. “I
have an infallible judgement for human character, it means I know you’re not sexually
interested in men but I also know by your eyes and reaction you like me and
because you’re a nice and interesting guy that’s more than enough for me.” Around
10:00pm22:00 he told me he had to go to bed for his beauty sleep, kissed
me quick but not irritating and left the pub. I
was also intending to take my last nip and find my way back when I got into a
chat with Jack the fisherman. I told Jack that my grandfather had also been a fisherman.
He was captain of a number of luggers like the Scheveningen 73. To underline this
I showed him a picture of a painting of the Scheveningen 73 I always have in my
wallet. This
made me his man for the evening and the rest of the night was filled with drinks
and sea-stories. Fortunately I had inherited some old stories from my grandfather
that were past on by my father so it was no one-direction story-telling event. There
is a family story about my grandfather Bastiaan Roeleveld. This
story started on May 1915. Around that time Britain, France and Russia were caught
up in World War 1 (1914-1918) against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. In the
morning of 7 May 1915 the Danish steamer “Lilian Drost” left the harbour of
Blyth (Britain) with 1500 ton pit coal and 950 ton coke heading for Copenhagen……………………………………………… The logbook
of the U36 reported that 17 ships were hit by a U-boat and one of them was the Lilian
Drost. December 1916, captain Roeleveld was honoured by the Danish ministry of
Foreign Affairs with the heavy silver goblet. Alcohol
made this sturdy sailer emotional and after my story this sailer embraced me
with a tear in his eye. It’s also possible that it was my imagination because I
was also far away. I must be honest and confess that I don’t know at what time
I went horizontal, but one thing I know for sure, it was on the right spot and
it was a coordinated going down. |